Beyond Capital?

Abstract

There is a familiar tale told by some Marxists — capitalism will come to an end when it no longer permits the development of productive forces. As described by G.A. Cohen in his book, Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defence, the thesis of ‘the primacy of productive forces’ proposes that the existence of a set of productive relations is explained by the level of development of the productive forces and that a new set of relations of production emerges when the old set ‘fetters’ the productive forces.2

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For Marx was before all else a revolutionist. His real mission in life was to contribute, in one way or another, to the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state institutions which it had brought into being, to contribute to the liberation of the modern proletariat, which he was the first to make conscious of its own position and its needs, conscious of the conditions of its emancipation.